Paul McCartney ‘Saw God’ While Taking Drugs

Paul McCartney recalled the time be believes he “saw God” while under the influence of drugs during the height of the Beatles’ fame in the ‘60s, and described it the experience as a “clue” to his spirituality. He was in the company of several other people when they took the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

“There was the gallery owner Robert Fraser, me, a couple of others,” McCartney told the Times in a new interview. “We were immediately nailed to the sofa. And I saw God, this amazing towering thing, and I was humbled. And what I’m saying is, that moment didn’t turn my life around, but it was a clue. It was huge. A massive wall that I couldn’t see the top of, and I was at the bottom. And anybody else would say it’s just the drug, the hallucination, but both Robert and I were, like, ‘Did you see that?’ We felt we had seen a higher thing.”

He continued: “[H]aving experienced people close to me dying, you often hear this from others when you say you’re missing a person so much. ‘Don’t worry,’ they say. ‘They’re here, looking down on you.’ And there’s part of you that thinks there is no proof of that. But there’s part of you that wants to believe it. I like to allow myself to think that happens, rather than stopping myself thinking of the possibility.”

He cited an example in which he felt he’d made contact with late wife Linda, who died in 1998. “I was in the country once, and I saw a white squirrel. So, this was Linda, come back to give me a sign. … It was a great moment. It thrilled me. Goosebumps! Obviously, I have no proof it was her at all, but it was good for me to think that.”

McCartney’s new album, Egypt Station, is released on Sept. 7 and he recently confirmed his first U.S. shows of 2019.